Patriarch Kirill flew from Punta Arenas in Chile to Russia’s Bellingshausen Station on King George’s Island, becoming the first head of the Russian Orthodox church to visit the seventh continent. The station, which is home to 30 scientists studying weather conditions, marine mammals and sea ice, is named after the imperial Russian navy captain Fabian von Bellingshausen, who is generally credited with discovering Antarctica in 1820.

Head of Russian Orthodox church quizzes penguin on Antarctica. Photograph: Youtube

The spiritual leader conducted a prayer service at his church’s southernmost outpost – a traditional wooden structure that was constructed in Russia’s Altai mountains and shipped to Antarctica in 2003.

After sprinkling polar researchers with holy water and holding a requiem for the 64 Russian explorers who have died in Antarctica, Patriarch Kirill had a chance to enjoy the relatively balmy summer weather, with temperatures now just above freezing. The Russian Orthodox church posted a video of him setting out in a dinghy and visiting a rocky shore, where hundreds of penguins were waddling about.

“What, little one? What’s troubling you?” the patriarch asked one bold penguin that seemed to confront him, holding out its stubby wings and sticking out its neck.

A photograph of a kneeling Kirill facing a penguin just a few feet away became fodder for an impromptu caption contest on Twitter on Thursday.

“The patriarch meets Kowalski,” read one Tweet, referring to a penguin character from the popular computer-animated film Madagascar.

“How much for some opiate of the masses?” the penguin asks the patriarch in another.

One user even juxtaposed a photograph of a penguin with one of the patriarch in his black-and-white ceremonial robes to draw attention to the similarity in their appearances.

The Russian Orthodox church has historically had close ties to the Russian state, and Patriarch Kirill has an especially close relationship with Vladimir Putin, describing Russia’s president as a “miracle from God”.

Kirill was caught up in a scandal in 2012 when his press service photoshopped a picture of him to remove his £20,000 watch, but forgot to remove the watch’s reflection on the shiny table beneath.